Post Your Comment

39 Comments

I'm not a big fan of the look of the case but the support for high-end graphics cards makes this a much more viable system than the Alienware X51. This could be a good option for gamers who don't build their own systems and don't want to pay the boutique prices.Reply

In the case of the power supply, "Custom" just means it's not any specific brand and we don't know who makes it or whether it's 80 Plus/Bronze/Silver/Gold. AFAIK, both Dell and HP have long since abandoned their proprietary power supply connectors. The motherboard on the other hand is likely BTX, which would mean using anything else in the case likely wouldn't work. Dustin would have to confirm this however.Reply

Well, you could probably build one yourself a bit cheaper, but without adding up the numbers probably not a lot cheaper. Remember that the i7-3960x CPU alone is $1049 on NewEgg. And the cheapest x79 motherboard is $204. Cheapest Gtx 580 is $459. So just with those three components you would be over $1700.

So I don't think its particularly over priced for an OEM System. Reply

Of course, the GTX 580 is no longer even an option at HP, and the same goes for the 160GB SSD (at least on the model I selected) so we'd be looking at GTX 550 Ti and a 256GB SSD in it's place. You can get that configuration for $2559 from HP. Making similar changes to the Newegg order, we end up with $2379.

Either way, it looks like HP is charging a premium of about $300 to build and configure their systems at the very high end. If you go with something more reasonable (like the i7-2600 h9t model), the price difference is more like $200 over building it yourself. It's not an awesome deal, but it's also not bad either -- pretty much in line with what you'd pay at a boutique.Reply

this computer looks a LOT like my "ancient" mid-tower HP desktop, that i bought some 4-5 years ago. reverse-mounted motherboard, fan at bottom-back (but this time it is a liquid-cooler and pushes air out), and tilted hard-drive cage with only 2 3.5" hdd slots (but this time it is 2 2.5 and 1 3.5).

the main difference is that this one is a bit bigger and has better looks. I can't fit a GTX580 on my case, but I have a 2500k with a 5770 here and for a small case it does a pretty nice job of keeping things cool. I just put 2 fans as intake (9cm and 12cm) on bottom back/right panels and they push all hot air out. no out-take fans for me.

"When we asked why the 7970 wasn't being offered, HP's representatives said it was an issue of maintaining a price point."

That confused me too. I get the part about only using a single GPU because of the form factor and power supply, but someone buying an Extreme edition socket 2011 CPU isn't exactly looking at bang-for-buck ratios.Reply

HD 7970 is brand new and commands a price premium. It probably means that HP couldn't get as large of a volume discount as they'd like. AMD is basically selling all of the 7970 cards they make right now for full price, so why should they sell 50K to HP at a discount when they could just continue selling them to end users for more money?Reply

All prebuild PCs have horrible CPU\GPU ratio. In games Core i5-2500 will give you same fps and money could be spend on additional GPU. Hell, even i3-2100 will be the same in almost all games. It's like builders have no idea that GPU is always bottleneck.And of course nvidia bias. There is absolutely no reason to buy 580 now. Reply

That was one sweet case, I wish they sold that as a standalone. Also the last Voodo Omen. The Firebird wasn't as appealing since it had a smaller upgrade path but it could have been interesting to some people. Sucks that HP shut all of that down after buying Voodo out. Reply

Very tactfully worded. Personally, I don't think many people would find this case more appealing than your average, cheap-looking $20 computer case. There are uglier cases, but this certainly isn't a looker.Reply

If anyone is thinking of buying one of these, please get in touch with me. I can match the performance and beat the looks with an OCd 2600K and a 7950 in a Casecom matx case, for a substantially lower price...Reply

For those that don't build their own machines there are other options than this proprietary HP. Just did a quick google, found Ironside Computers and built up a HAF 922 with an i7-2600k, SSD, regular HDD, 8GB ram, AMD 7970, Corsair Enthusiast 650w for about $1,900.

Of course I would personally never purchase bleeding tech like the 7970 because the cost isn't worth its performance, but hell... for $600 cheaper than that HP you have a system with parts that aren't proprietary and the best single GPU on the market.Reply

cases are too plastic and boring. not really bad looking exactly, but not so interesting either.i'd rather have an old grey 386 case with it's clean minimalist look.also, HP uses a bunch of proprietary SD card readers and they put an a$$ load of metal brackets and header patch cables inside, the end result being that the inside is extremely cluttered and it's difficult to work on.they are not upgrade friendly. :(Reply